Dryland exercises provide a great way to build the strength and power needed for successful swimming, complementing aquatic workouts in providing strength development.
These basic exercises will help swimmers build power and endurance, which is vital for increasing speed and distance per stroke. Furthermore, these exercises help develop core strength – essential to maintaining proper body positioning while swimming!
Tricep Kickbacks
Dryland training is essential to keeping you strong and resilient off of the pool, whether you are recreational swimmer or training to reach elite status. But newcomers to this form of exercise may find themselves confused as to which exercises are appropriate for swimmers – on Whiteboard Wednesday we’re providing an overview of dryland workouts as well as noting which ones shouldn’t be performed by swimmers. In this session we’re breaking down the basics and showing examples of exercises not recommended specifically for them.
One key thing to keep in mind when performing dryland exercises is that they focus on different muscle groups than those used for swimming. Therefore, you will want to steer clear of exercises which target the same muscles used for your swimming strokes, such as bench dips. They belong to calisthenics style of strength training, which involves lifting bodyweight similar to pushups – an effective gym workout but one which could potentially cause injuries for swimmers because too much pressure is put on shoulders and triceps muscles.
Tricep kickbacks are an effective arm exercise for swimmers. Not only can they strengthen the triceps brachii muscle at the back of your upper arm, but they can also improve your swim strokes by strengthening it further. To perform one yourself, place a resistance band underneath your feet and grasp it with both hands before leaning forward at waist until body is nearly parallel with floor while knees bend slightly before extending arm back until shoulder height and repeat this movement for both arms.
Along with arm and core exercises, you should incorporate drills that train specific swimming movements. Streamline flutter kicks and plank leg lifts are effective ways of increasing streamline push-off efficiency as well as optimizing body position for more efficient stroke efficiency.
Push-ups
Push-ups are an indispensable dryland exercise for swimmers. Not only can they strengthen abdominal, shoulder, chest and tricep muscles – essential elements in aquatic sports – they also offer variety to keep workouts fresh and engaging.
Squats are among the most essential strength exercises for swimmers. Squats can be performed in numerous ways and help strengthen quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves – which all play an integral part in proper swimming form. Plus they’re relatively straightforward so make a great addition to any training plan!
Core strength is essential to swimming, helping with body position in the water, underwater kicking and flip turns. While many swimmers focus on situps and crunches as dryland core workouts for swimmers to perform, other exercises such as planks may prove more effective and safer; such as lying on your stomach engaging your abs then pushing up with arms to form a straight line.
Swimming is a high-impact sport that can put undue strain on muscles and joints in the lower back and hips, leading to wear-and-tear damage that reduces injury risk while simultaneously improving swimming performance. By strengthening the core, swimmers can reduce injury risks while improving overall swimming ability.
As swimmers, we need to move quickly and powerfully through the water. Implementing plyometric exercises such as jump squats, box jumps or clap push-ups into your dryland workout can increase explosive power and coordination resulting in faster starts, turns and overall swim times.
Use aerobic exercises in your dryland workouts to build endurance for long distance races or intense training sessions, as well as to strengthen heart and lungs for improved cardiovascular health and better breathing. Aerobics is also essential in creating stronger hearts and lungs for improved cardiopulmonary health and respiratory performance.
The ideal dryland exercises for swimmers include dynamic warmups, flexibility training, core strengthening exercises and strength work with equipment specifically targeting swimming muscles. A good dryland program should also include cool down exercises to ease muscle and joint stiffness and soreness after each workout session.
Flutter Kicks
Flutter kicks are an integral component of any effective swimming workout, and are particularly crucial in improving front crawl and backstroke push-off. Flutter kicks target hip flexors and abdominal muscles while simultaneously increasing balance, speed and speed of your kicking motion. Furthermore, flutter kicks help maintain proper body positioning so your arms work more effectively.
For this dryland exercise, you will require either dumbbells or swim training fins that match the length of your leg. Begin in a prone position with your face in the water, push off from a wall, glide forward in an efficient and balanced fashion before engaging your core and beginning flutter kicking – repeat until your desired repetitions or time limit has been reached.
This drill can be completed as a group activity or with one partner and offers the perfect chance to develop technique and communication. Your partner can assist with pinpointing any flaws in your technique that might otherwise remain hidden when in a deep pool environment.
As you perform the flutter kick, notice how your instep flicks down slightly to produce lift as it passes through the water. This action helps reduce drag and assist your swim speed as it allows your body to travel swiftly across it.
Another effective way to perfect the flutter kick is to perform this drill on a stability ball, which adds an element of instability that challenges core muscles even further. Sit on top of the stability ball while keeping legs off of ground and engaged – then, while performing flutter kick, try keeping legs up in an horizontal horizontal position while performing your kicks.
Add an extra challenge by performing the flutter kick while holding the short edge of a kickboard at arm’s length, challenging both your balance and core muscles while increasing difficulty of the kick by forcing you to hold your breath during each movement. This exercise can also make an effective partner workout as it forces each partner to maintain balance over their legs while keeping balance for their own benefit.
Swiss Ball Leg Lifts
Many swimmers dislike dryland exercises, yet dryland training is key to swimming success. Dryland exercises build muscle strength and power more effectively than water-based training alone, helping prevent injuries while increasing stroke efficiency and swimming times overall. By including these exercises into their workouts regularly, swimmingers will reduce injuries, enhance stroke efficiency and experience faster swim times overall.
The Swiss Ball Leg Lift is an excellent dryland exercise to target hips, hamstrings and core. A swimmer begins by lying prone on a gym ball with their hips centred over it while their chest slightly raised; then slowly raise their arms until shoulder height (Y straight arm lift) or just above their head (W and T straight arm lift). Once complete, lower them slowly back down again slowly in a controlled manner before repeating 2 or 3 times for beginner reps. Beginners should begin with 10-20 reps over 2-3 sets until reaching shoulder height (Y straight arm lift). Beginners should start by performing 10-20 reps over 2 or 3 sets to get started properly before progressing further with more complex exercises like this.
If you want a more advanced variation, perform the Swiss ball leg lift with feet elevated on a chair to add another challenge and increase intensity of this workout. This exercise provides an added level of difficulty that makes for a challenging and effective workout session.
Dryland exercises can not only strengthen individual muscle groups, but they can also be used to increase body stability and balance. Strengthening the core is especially crucial for swimmers as it aids with positioning during underwater kicking as well as proper rotation during flip turns; exercises such as plank leg lifts, streamline flutter kicks, and Swiss ball crunches can all help strengthen it.
The squat is an essential dryland exercise for swimmers. It engages both quads and glutes – essential muscles in improving speed and efficiency when performing flutter kicks – for faster performance in water. For an increased challenge add weights or add resistance bands.
Plyometric exercises such as jump squats or box jumps are among the top dryland exercises for swimmers, providing them with explosive power and speed that can translate to faster starts and finishes in the pool as well as shorter overall swim times.
